Industry reports show that viewers are spending more time than ever watching videos and using other media-delivery services. In response, new services are developed almost daily. Viewers have begun to use their personal communications devices (e.g., cellphones and tablet computers) to download and to view these media content items.
Downloads of media content items that include video require much more bandwidth than do audio-only or text-only downloads. Managing these downloads in a radio environment, where many user devices may compete for bandwidth, is an ongoing challenge. The challenge is made especially difficult when a user wishes to watch the video as it is being downloaded (rather than downloading for later viewing).
This download-bandwidth challenge is exasperated by the recent spread of three-dimensional (3D) video offerings. Because human beings naturally view the world in three dimensions, 3D video can be more appealing than traditional 2D video. Even smaller devices such as cellphones are appearing that can present 3D video (as well as 3D static images) to their users. However, 3D downloads naturally require more bandwidth than do 2D downloads, and presenting 3D media content items requires more storage space and more processing power on the user device.